‘Prison Struggle’ Archives

At the beginning of May 2016 our comrade Patryk Cichoń from Poland was arrested by British police under an European Arrest Warrant. Patryk is a well known anti-fascist militant notorious among neo-Nazi-boneheads in his city for his uncompromising stance against them in the past. The boneheads managed to convince a few of their friends to testify against Patryk and his friend for an alleged assault and robbery. As later transpired, his friend had a very good alibi and had the charges against him dropped (despite being allegedly recognised by the “victim” and his friends), so Patryk ended up being sentenced on his own. The whole trial was an absolute travesty and Patryk, as a poor, young working class person, was not able to afford a proper defence. He spent two months on remand in 2004 and was sentenced to three years in prison.

It is clear that this whole case was politically motivated and had only one purpose, which was to get rid of the core of the anti-fascist resistance in Patryk’s home town. (more…)

The trial that will see Riccardo accused will be held on 5 October at 9.00 at the court of Altona – Hamburg (Max Bauer Allee 91.). It will be open but we do not yet know whether the judgment will be on the same day or will slip to another date. It depends on the hearing (in many cases they have been judged in a single day also because the defendants have confessed).

He will be judged by the second degree court that has sentences from two years upwards (in Germany the courts are divided into 3 levels based on the requested sentence, it is not a special court). The formal charges are: breach of the peace, attack by assault and resistance.

Regarding mail censorship, there have not been any systematic blocks but some letters are blocked (so far they are 3, spread over time: a postcard, a letter, an envelope containing newspapers from Hamburg).

Then envelopes containing counter-informative material and brochures were blocked.

Throughout my whole life, I’ve had a running list of worst fears that changed over the years, as many times as I have. My latest, having been the most likely to occur were fears of houseless-ness and prison. I used to have nightmares of the two where I would wake up in sweats. I’ve since been cured of them both but only by living through each.

With work inside our local communities, most, if not all, activists see people when they need solidarity the most. The houseless, the jobless, the drug addicts, the ones that have been tossed out, abused, and left for dead by our capitalistic system are the ones who we eat dinner with, laugh with, seek treatment with or aid mutually more than most others. A lot of these people have hit the preverbal bottom with unwavering abandonment from the state. The presence of these fears was only the state legitimizing itself in my subconscious mind. Facing my fear of houseless-ness was voluntary and a choice I made before leaving for Standing Rock last year. My arrest on Jan 21st was not voluntary what so ever and I would soon learn how to de-legitimize the state through control of ones own fears.

After the courts released me on January 26th, my fears were put into overdrive after five days in DC jails’ intake wing. Our culture is centered around punishment. Our TV’s highlight it, our movies romanticize it, our politicians run on it’s platform, and our judges make a mockery of it by sending youth to “Scared Straight” programs. The latter of these I had the honor of attending at the youthful age of 14. Having grown adults insinuate that they would kill you if given the chance at such a young age is a shining example of just how loving our justice system is. Occupied Turtle Islands’ obsession with punishment is unavoidable and a symptom of society’s sickness in the same way that cops are glorified and reality TV stars become president. (more…)

UPDATE: All the accused in “Fenix 1” are found innocent on all points. The verdict is inactive due to the appeal of the state attorney but all the custodies and so on are taken down and as a first step this is quite a relief. There will be more trials. There will be a proper post about it soon.

Tomorrow morning the city court in Prague will decide whether or not the 5 anarchists in Fenix 1 (the conspiracy of a preparation of a terrorist attack against the train carrying military equipment – entrapment by the state agents) will be found “guilty”. The sentence will be in the morning hours and besides deciding over the lives of the five, it will show how far police can take it in repression against counter-cultural movements or groups.

We will for sure inform you as soon as we know more. If they will be sentenced we will do an international call for action and organize stuff here.

All of this case cost us many emotional and physical resources and after all the court hearing we again hit the bottom of our economical budget, so if anyone has any extra money, we would very appreciate it.

We apologize we didn’t invite for the court through our blog, but we can’t access it due to admin problems. Hopefully it will change within hours.

Hello everybody, friends and comrades. Everybody knows the politics in Turkey some more than others. I want to try to tell you, to help you understand about the situation in Turkey and I would like to ask for your attention and international solidarity in this matter. Turkey became a nation in 1923. Since this historical moment Turkey was caught in a history of facist military coups. In general they have been 8 fascist coups and related to that ten thousands of revolutionary communists and anarchists were killed. In the last military coup ın 1980 almost one million people were tortured and detaıned ın prısons.Now, after 22 years Recep Tayyip Erdoğan who describes himself as a Muslim, won the elections through manipulation and became the prime minister of Turkey. He has influenced the mind of most people in Turkey through elaborate promises and community schemes to ınfluence the mınds of the people. In the following elections he was elected again through further manipulation (different practices). He has begun to fight against the democratic powers in the society and put every critical voice in prison. (more…)

The date of the hearing against Riccardo, an anarchist charged with criminal offences relating to riot days against G20 in Hamburg in July, is set. It will be held on 5 October at the Court of Hamburg.

We call on everyone to take part in solidarity presence, organised for that day, in the courtroom (Riccardo will be there) and at the Court, as well as in activities which will be promoted in Genoa during those days.
Updates will follow.

I was arrested by two ugly shades,
holding two ugly guns
pointed directly at my face
wearing a backpack full of gasoline and paint thinner

One to create, one to tear down
pockets full of shells and notes to remember
my tshirt was solid black
my jeans hadn’t been washed in weeks

Calvin was patted and released
he had to work for me that night
the cops of me of the beatings and sexual assault
that I had to look forward to that evening in holding
while handcuffed to a bench
stayed there for 3 days
ate 1 cinnamon bun

Was wearing the red pumas with the white laces
that Andrea had given me for surviving to be 25
achievements of all sizes

I was arrested on September 16th, 3 years ago
although it always feels
much longer ago

the interrogator was
fuming after my laughing
subsided
after they asked if “was
this an occupy plot?!”

They had a warrant for my
body
A warrant for my spit

My mom cried on the
phone ” your family saw
you all over the news!
And they used a terrible picture!”

Eric has been locked up for three years now, he was arrested on September 16th 2014. Between Kansas, Oklahoma, and now Colorado he has seen a lot of different jails and prisons and has had his share of struggles along the way. There’s no denying it has been a long road and unfortunately there’s an even longer road ahead.

The support and solidarity we can provide Eric in the coming months and years will only help him in maintaining his spirit, fortitude and overall position in a very tough place. He has said many times that the time he has spent in the S.H.U (secure housing unit) at various points along the way would have been much harder if it wasn’t for the love and support he received in the form of letters, cards, and books. It’s clear that is also the case while he does his time in the general population.

There are a multitude of reasons why it may take Eric time to write you back, or unfortunately not be able to write back at all. However, please know he very much appreciates and gains strength from every piece of mail he gets. So please keep him on your mind, spread the word about his plight, and keep the mail coming.

We’d also like to take the time to remind you about a new edition to our website which is the Merch page. Please take some time to see if there’s anything you’d like that we are offering there and then pass around the link. The money we raise will go towards commissary, phone calls for Eric as well as travel funds so his partner can visit him more easily.

Thank you so much to everyone around the world for the support and solidarity,

Since October 2015, Bloomington Anarchist Black Cross has been providing consistent monthly funds to anarchist prisoners throughout the United States via our Anarchist Prisoner War Fund. We are now asking for help keeping this project going strong into the future.

We have specifically chosen comrades who were receiving very little money or support from the outside, who have no familial support, or who were otherwise in need of monetary aid. These funds have been essential when some comrades did stints in solitary due to activities surrounding the September 9th prison strike, aiding their survival in the most oppressive conditions. We also emphasize support for rebellious prisoners who have maintained the struggle behind the walls. We want to make it clear to our comrades in prison and those taking action on the outside that they can continue to struggle without fear of abandonment if they are caught.(more…)

Here’s a list of reported events so far that happened for the international week of solidarity to anarchist prisoners, reports from various counter-info sites via solidarity.international. Freedom to all the imprisoned comrades, and good luck to all those with warrants and investigations!

“I read somewhere that in the whole world, in all those millions, there are no two boys or two girls that are same as two drops of water.The same thing happens with revolutionaries. Each one carries in their participation their own dreams, their own loves. Their own self, their own “I can”. Alas, if it was otherwise. We would be either machines or amoebae.

And the history the whore, that’s how they write her, both the bourgeois and the communists: horizontal, flat. They speak about peoples, they speak about masses. Nobody from them could ever feel the intensity, the passion, the climax and the fall of entire worlds, in only one twenty-four hours from the life of the revolutionary.”

‘Fine, you got killed early’

Chronis Missios

Everything started in 2012 in a protest, where I participated too against the memorandum, as all the people. In the end of the protest others went home, others to some coffee shops, others to the Exarcheia Square. I continued on foot towards my residence. That has little importance for the State and it’s lackeys, since they didn’t allow me to defend myself before my custody.

On the evening of Tuesday 25/07/2017, while I was leaving the house of a friend – I state that it was not my house – I was surrounded by 25 garbage of State Security, they handcuff me and lead me to the General Police Directive announcing to me, that there was pending an arrest warrant for three months for which I was never informed about. After about 30 minutes, the chief called me to his office and when I entered he gave me his hand. Reflexively, I laughed, told him to hold himself and I sat to listen. He mentioned, that he knows that I’m a good guy, but he suspects, that I participate in protests of the movement. I didn’t deny or accept anything. I replied nothing. Next, he mentioned some names without asking me anything specific. Then impersonating the profile of the ‘good’ cop he told me, that they are not going to my house ‘because my mum is elderly, they don’t want something to happen to her’. All of this lasted 5 minutes. (more…)

This is a communique from Irianna B.L’s partner, Konstantinos Papadopoulos:

14th March 2011. Anti-terrorism squads raided the house I was renting in the neighbourhood of Cholargos in Athens and arrested me as a suspected member of the revolutionary organization ‘Conspiracy of Cells of Fire’. That night Irianna had the bad luck to sleep at mine. She was taken to the police station and interrogated, fingerprinted and submitted to DNA samples taking. She was released on the same day.

I was released on bail 3 days later.

10th November 2011. According to the reconstruction of a ‘witness’, who was never to be seen again, not even in the trial, weapons were found, which were never used, in the Polytechnic of Zografou in Athens.

11th January 2913. Irianna was arrested as a member of the Conspiracy of Cells of Fire and for illegally transporting weapons on the grounds of a tiny DNA trace found on a magazine which was part of the lot of weapons located in the Polytechnic. A year and a half since those weapons were found and after the police had had her DNA for two years.

Irianna was released on bail, this time, without the judge of the special tribunal making her details or picture public. The task was instead undertaken by the then minister of citizens’ protection Nikos Dendias with an informal communique. (more…)

Two activists Markéta Všelichová and Miroslav Farkas were arrested on the 13th of November 2016 while attempting to cross the Habur border crossing from Turkey to Iraq. They were accused of participating in terrorist activity in Northern Syria and taken into custody.

On the 2nd of August they were sentenced to 6 years and 3 months for belonging to the Kurdish defence forces YGP/YPJ (these non-state kurdish groups are fighting Daesh/ISIS, the turkish army which has been repressing Kurds for several decades, and the dictatorial regime of Bashar Al-Asad).

Markéta had been to Rojava twice, according to her own words she joined the defence forces and fell in love with the region and its specific cultural and political situation. This time she and Mirek were on their way to Rojava, where they planned to set up a field hospital for fighters and civilians, and eventually help with defence, as she says herself. Together they made a campaign before their big journey, during which they wanted to acquire the necessary material, while also not being afraid to make lectures about life, fighting and revolution in the region. These public activities also probably raised the interest of Turkish agents.

In an interview Markéta said she feels with people, who risk their life in the fight against evil, that she would like to help Rojava with anything it needs, and that she realizes that as a European she has greater possibilities how to get involved and help. A bit my own way, but with them, as she said. (more…)

On the international solidarity week for anarchist prisoners, August, 23rd—30th

It’s been years now that the various state agencies of repression order the conduct of investigation under the sole criterion the suspects’ political status. This is the status of the anarchist, mainly of the one who turns his/her ideas into actions, of the one that arms his/her desires and attacks state authority. So each investigation has to do with the possible prosecution of comrades according to the laws of their “democracy.” Police prosecution that starts off with texts and extends to all possible actions is not new amongst the anarchist circles. On the contrary, there is a past record on relative prosecutions in countries such as Italy, Chile etc. where there is a strong comrade presence promoting direct action and intervention.

The common goal of contemporary international police is the prevention of anarchist propaganda, anarchist action and the spreading of our ideas. For this reason, in many cases they don’t even hesitate to put aside the refined mask of “democracy” that supposedly allows “freedom of speech and ideas.” And thus, any illusion that anyone may still hold is dissolved. Things are now clear: “anarchist action or speech is either illegal or nothing at all!” The new form of repression is currently being practiced upon many of our prisoners that find themselves under illegal restrain with accusations based on their political identity and having taken up the political responsibility for their actions as well as their organizations’. It is certain that in the future this strategy of preventive repression, of persecutions with the maximum of penalties, the fast track trials as well as the effort for isolation and silence, will be implemented everywhere, or at least it will be attempted to— apart from our prisoners, it will try to reach anarchist hangouts and self-organized places that defend and propagate the anarchist values. (more…)